
Our collection has 6 generations of pots from this family, who she learned from and who she taught
The King Galleries in Phoenix list Dextra Quotskuyva, the great Hopi potter and epitome of the Nampeyo matrilineal descent of greatness, as having died this year. News to me.
Coincidentally I had pulled from my shelf this morning for my studies “Painted Perfection” the catalog for a 2001 Wheelwright exhibit of her work, curated by Marti Struever. Marti died in fall, 2017. My mom died last year; we are creeping up on the anniversary of such (This morning, becoming woke, I was recalling the fact that my mom and her mom died on the same day of the Hebrew calender, and it is also one of the most solemn days, when the Temple was distroyed — I could not precisely recall the number 9. I’m going with Tisha B’Av).
We have in our collection a somewhat omenous Jacob Koopee that Marti showcased: it features 13 maidens but one of them has her face bored thru. I recall Derek Fisher walking in to his mother’s gallery, circa 2011, holding an orange pot, from Jacob Koopee that my dad bought on the spot. (Derek said he had flown it back from a collection — like, on his lap).
We have a photo of mom and Dextra holding a pot we had purchased, in Marti’s book, page 33, called “Summer Clouds”, 1997. It is pledged to the DeYoung, the Paul E and Barbara H Weiss Collection of Pueblo Pottery.
This is the appearance of summer clouds. You know how they come out; some of them make different designs. I just left it up to the Creator to decide how to do it.